A CEO's guide to the AI workforce of 2026

Hi Futurist,

If you're still thinking, AI isn’t for me, then I honestly don’t know what else to tell you. In the past weeks, Google dropped Gemini 3. Anthropic pushed Claude 4.5. And rumor has it OpenAI is responding today. Like I wrote in the last edition: if you only look at each release up close, you’re missing the full picture. McKinsey just released a paper showing that, with current tech, 57% of all US jobs could be taken over. Yes, you read that right. And if you're still thinking surely it won’t go that fast, know this: the US Secretary of Defense just gave the entire army access to Gemini 3. And by January 2027, the Deputy Secretary of Defense must submit a full report to US Congress on AGI, resource needs, and adversary capabilities. Planning for 2026 but still not sure where to start? Read the headstory. I’ll break it all down. Therefore, I am sending you insights, inspiration, and innovation straight to your inbox. Let’s dive into the depths of the digital future together and discover the waves of change shaping our industry.

💡 In this post, we're dipping in:

• 📣 Byte-Sized Breakthroughs: If today’s AI can already automate 57% of work hours, these launches show just how fast we’re moving toward 100%. Claude Opus 4.5 is here and it’s not playing around. Meanwhile, the EU is loosening GDPR and AI rules to speed up innovation.

• 🤖 Digital Toolbox: One builds your website from your brand. One watches your videos and tells you what works. And one acts like the AI coworker you always wanted, quietly doing the work while you stay focused.

• 🧐 In Case You Missed It: Too many updates? Same here. So we filtered the noise and picked the ones worth your scroll. AI assistants that actually work. Video tools levelling up. Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity all in the ring. Even Cristiano Ronaldo is in.

Do you have tips, feedback or ideas? Or just want to give your opinion? Feel free to share it at the bottom of this dip. That's what I'm looking for.

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Quick highlights of the latest technological developments.

Headstory: A CEO's guide to the AI workforce of 2026

In the last edition of Digital Dips, I said we’re living in the exponential. You might have thought it was a bit too dramatic. Perhaps even hyperbolic. Please, read McKinsey's new report, Agents, Robots, and Us. If I couldn’t convince you last time, this might. Today's AI and robotics could automate 57% of U.S. work hours. And here's what makes this truly extraordinary: that estimate only reflects the current state of AI technology. Just what exists today, sitting in your tools, waiting to be deployed.

If today's technology can already automate 57% of work hours, imagine what becomes possible in twelve months. In eighteen. In twenty-four. Insane.

Consider this frame: GPT-4, released in 2023, represented roughly 27% of the capability needed to match human performance across domains. GPT-5, arriving in 2025, sits at approximately 58%. The trajectory points toward near-100% capability across all domains by the end of 2026, AI systems that can perform complete jobs, not just tasks.

This is not a warning. It's a signal. The question isn't whether AI will transform your business. It's whether you'll be the one shaping that transformation, or the one being reshaped by competitors who moved first.

Work in the future will be a partnership between people and AI agents. All powered by AI, all working together in configurations we're only beginning to understand. This isn't theory anymore. It's the operating reality of leading organizations worldwide.

The data from OpenAI's 2025 Enterprise AI Report tells the story with precision. ChatGPT Enterprise message volume grew 8x year-over-year. Not 8%. Eight times. API reasoning token consumption per organization increased 320x. More than seven million workplace seats are now active across their enterprise customers alone. These aren't pilot programs gathering dust in innovation labs. This is infrastructure. This is how work gets done.

Here's what matters most: workers using AI report saving 40–60 minutes per day. Data scientists, engineers, and communications professionals save even more, 60 to 80 minutes daily. Across functions, the gains are tangible: 87% of IT workers report faster issue resolution. 85% of marketing and product users report faster campaign execution. 75% of HR professionals report improved employee engagement. 73% of engineers report faster code delivery. According to research from Anthropic, people typically use AI for complex tasks that would take an average of 1.4 hours to complete without assistance. AI reduces task completion time by approximately 80%. These aren't marginal improvements. This is time reclaimed. Capacity unlocked. Value created.

And perhaps most striking: 75% of enterprise workers now complete tasks they previously could not perform at all. Consider what this means. A marketing manager who couldn't code now builds data pipelines. A sales representative who struggled with analysis now creates sophisticated forecasting models. A customer service lead who relied entirely on IT now automates her own workflows. The boundaries of competence are dissolving. The definition of what any individual can accomplish is expanding.

AI won't make most human skills obsolete. It will change how they're applied. What changes is context. You'll spend less time preparing documents and doing basic research, more time framing questions and interpreting results. Less time on data entry and routine analysis. More time on judgment calls that require understanding context, nuance, and human stakes.

The companies capturing this value aren't just adopting AI. They're reimagining work itself. Think of it this way. It's the difference between putting an electric motor in a horse-drawn carriage and inventing the automobile. The former improves incrementally. The latter transforms fundamentally. Most companies are still building better carriages.

If you're making plans for 2026, here's what you should do next:

1. Establish your baseline.
   Map your current AI adoption across functions, teams, and individuals. Identify your frontier workers and understand what they're doing differently. Audit your most important workflows and estimate the potential for AI-enabled redesign. Get honest about the gap between where you are and where leaders are.

2. Build the foundation.
   Connect AI to your critical data systems. Establish governance frameworks and safety protocols. Begin AI fluency training across leadership and key functions. Create your first custom GPTs or workflow automations for high-frequency tasks. Stand up the change management infrastructure you'll need.

3. Scale selectively.
   Choose two or three core workflows for fundamental redesign. Deploy agents in production for specific use cases. Measure outcomes rigorously: time saved, quality improved, errors reduced, revenue generated. Use data to build the business case for broader investment.

4. Accelerate.
   Expand successful implementations across the organization. Develop advanced capabilities in your highest-potential teams. Begin planning for agentic workflows, multi-step, autonomous processes that require minimal human intervention.

By the end of 2026, AI systems are projected to be capable of performing most tasks across most domains. If your organization is still building basic AI literacy while competitors are deploying autonomous agents, the competitive disadvantage becomes structural. It becomes difficult to overcome. So, start positioning your organization for the next wave of capability that will arrive in 2026.

Throughout this journey, remember: the goal isn't to automate everything. It's to create systems where people and AI agents work together to create more value than any could create alone. To do things they couldn’t do before. To do things that were previously not economically viable. The partnership model is the destination.

Claude Opus 4.5 is here, and it's ridiculous

TL;DR

Anthropic’s newest model, Claude Opus 4.5, is officially out. It’s the best model right now for code, agents, and computer tasks. It handles long conversations, complex documents, and real-world software better than anything else on the market. It’s cheaper, sharper, and way more capable.

Read it yourself?

Sentiment

People are calling it the best coding model ever released. While OpenAI and Google went wide with features, Anthropic went deep. Focused. Claude doesn’t draw, sing or guess, Claude codes. That focus paid off. Opus 4.5 beats its rivals where it matters most for devs. The price drop only adds fuel. Still, not everyone notices the leap right away. With new models dropping fast, it’s getting harder to tell what truly changed, until you use it and feel it. That’s when the “wow” kicks in.

My thoughts

Anthropic just made its strategy very clear. While others chase headlines with voice models, image generators or kitchen-sink launches, Anthropic picked one lane, coding, and nailed it. Claude Opus 4.5 doesn’t entertain. It works. And that’s the real story. It beats every other model on SWE-bench Verified. They built a model that actually reasons, tests, fixes, and improves its own logic. It doesn’t write slop. It doesn’t cheat with clever-sounding answers. It just gets the job done. No fluff. No shortcuts. They also dropped the price. From $15/$75 to $5/$25 per million tokens. That’s not marketing. That’s impact. Add to that the new “effort” setting, Excel/Chrome/Desktop tools, and the ability to run long, multi-agent tasks and you get a serious upgrade to how real people work. This is what talent focus looks like. It’s not just model performance, it’s culture, clarity, and knowing what not to chase. Others play the attention game. Anthropic plays the long game. AGI isn’t won by the loudest launch. It’s won by solving the hardest problems quietly, one model at a time. Opus 4.5 feels like the start of something different.

The EU wants to soften GDPR and AI rules.

TL;DR

European Commission proposes to relax parts of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and EU AI Act: easier data use for AI training, fewer consent‑requirements, delayed enforcement of “high‑risk” AI rules and less red tape for smaller firms.

Read it yourself?

Sentiment

Many voices online, especially in business and tech circles, cheer this move. They argue the EU must ease its strict rules to keep up with the U.S. and China, hoping the loosening means better access to AI‑driven tools, faster innovations and a stronger position for European companies in the global race.

My thoughts

It’s a tough issue because it’s about values. But values don’t win you the race, especially not when it comes to disruptive technologies like AI. When it’s about tracking people, keeping them glued to their screens, or encouraging endless scrolling on social media, I’m fully behind the EU’s stance. But when it comes to developing AI, I see things differently. If you believe in exponential growth, it’s hard to understand some of the choices being made in Europe. The criticism from others seems justified. Research, including the one discussed in the headstory, shows we need full focus and full speed to stay with the frontrunners. There’s barely time to sit back and reflect. If we want to keep our competitive edge and make our continent future-proof, we should be pushing for innovation, not just regulation. These are difficult decisions, but they shape the direction we take on a global level. It strikes me that politicians focus more on regulating these kinds of technologies than on pushing innovation. During the last elections in the Netherlands, I didn’t hear a single politician mention AI, even though the next four years will look nothing like the last. One thing is clear: while there’s still a long road ahead, I’m glad the EU is starting to see that we need to shift gears. Otherwise, we won’t be making the choices anymore, the choices will be made for us by other nations on a global level.

More byte-sized breakthroughs:

• Nano Banana Pro brings studio‑grade visuals
  Nano Banana Pro brings studio-grade visuals to your screen. This new image model goes far beyond casual creation, offering sharp text rendering, instant translation, and a deep connection to world knowledge. You can now generate accurate diagrams, realistic product visuals, and localized content with ease. Built for creators who want control and clarity, Nano Banana Pro adds a new layer of precision to every image you make.

• DeepSeek raises the bar, again
  DeepSeek‑V3.2 blends efficiency with strong reasoning and now joins the ranks of top‑tier models, but as open source. Just like Gemini and OpenAI’s models last summer, it clinched gold in the 2025 IMO and IOI. Sparse Attention cuts compute without sacrificing performance, and its scaled agent training makes it a serious rival in complex tasks. With this release, open source doesn’t just catch up, it competes.

• Google rolls out Workspace Studio
  Google launches Google Workspace Studio, a no‑code way to build, manage and share AI agents inside Google Workspace. Powered by Gemini 3, Workspace Studio lets anyone, not just coders, set up agents in minutes using plain language. Agents can handle tasks like sorting emails, scheduling, generating reports or linking across apps like Gmail, Drive, Chat, even tools like Asana or Jira.

Three (new) tools that you can use for your work now or later.

Pablo – Create a website from your brand, not a blank page

Pablo.design turns your brand into a live website, instantly. Drop in your logo, pick your colors, and let the tool do the heavy lifting. Fonts, layouts, styling, it adapts to your identity, not the other way around. The result? A sharp, on-brand site that feels like you made it. Without actually having to. Perfect for startups, studios, or anyone who hates blank canvases. Just press publish and get on with building your business.

Palo - Turn your creator brain into smart video signals

Palo.ai watches your content, studies what works and tells you what to do next. It learns what makes people stop and watch. It finds what works, what doesn’t, and gives you the next idea. From scripts to hooks to storyboards, it turns insights into content that clicks. You still write the lines, but now with data on your side. Sharpen your format. Boost your reach. Speak your fans’ language. For creators who want to grow without guessing.

Dimension – The AI coworker who actually does the work

Dimension isn’t just another assistant. It’s an AI built to understand your tools, your team, and how you work. Clear your calendar, draft an email, prep your next meeting, all done automatically. From debugging deployments to building travel plans or writing your weekly summary, there’s a workflow for that. It connects to your entire workspace and runs things in the background while you stay focused. Real output, not just suggestions. Meet the AI that gets things done.

A roundup of updates that are too cheesy to ignore.

• Figma's MCP client now links external tools for seamless prototyping and task updates.

• Google’s Veo 3.1 update lets you upload multiple reference images for richer video creation.

• Google’s NotebookLM Infographics tool transforms information into stunning visuals for Pro users, with free access soon.

• Google tests AI Mode on mobile search, promising direct answers to your complex queries.

• Google Gemini 3 unveils Deep Think, tackling complex problems with simultaneous hypotheses exploration.

• Perplexity lets Pro and Max users create and edit slides, sheets, and docs across search modes.

• Perplexity unveils a personalized shopping experience with curated picks and Instant Buy via PayPal.

• Perplexity introduces virtual try-on for Pro and Max subscribers to digitally model outfits.

• Perplexity enhances memory, delivering smarter answers by recalling your past threads and interests.

• Cristiano Ronaldo’s investment in Perplexity aims to spark curiosity by encouraging ambitious questions globally.

• OpenAI unveils GPT-5.1-Codex-Max, running autonomously for over a day on complex tasks.

• OpenAI’s GPT-5.1 Pro goes live, offering sharper solutions for complex work and business tasks.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Teachers offers a secure workspace with admin controls, free for verified U.S. K-12 educators until 2027.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT unveils group chats, letting users integrate friends, co-workers and family into AI-powered conversations.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT introduces Shopping Research to streamline your product searches with interactive insights.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT Voice integrates into chat for seamless conversations with visuals, available now on mobile and web.

• OpenIAI’s ChatGPT enters the ad game with in-chat promos, but relevancy needs work.

• OpenAI's Sam Altman initiates 'code red' to boost ChatGPT amid rising competition from AI rivals.

• xAI’sGrok 4.1 Fast elevates customer support with its expansive 2M context window.

• xAI’s Grok 4.1 Fast unveils Agent Tools API, unlocking 𝕏 data, web browsing, and code execution.

• xAI’s Grok 5 trains on Colossus 2, the world's most powerful AI supercluster, Elon confirmed.

• Meta launches SAM 3D, revolutionizing visual AI with spatial awareness.

• Adobe acquires Semrush to boost brand visibility across all digital channels for marketers.

• Dreamina AI launches multi frames, letting you create seamless 54-second video sequences with up to 10 controllable keyframes.

• Locus outsmarts human experts in AI R&D, achieving superhuman results on complex tasks.

• Runway Gen-4.5 redefines video creation with unmatched motion quality and visual fidelity.

• Runway adds Audio Nodes to Workflows, enhancing creativity with Text to Speech and Voice Isolation tools.

• Hunyuan Video 1.5 redefines video creation with ultra-light 8.3B parameters, now deployable on consumer GPUs.

• Taskade introduces a business-in-a-box, automating workspaces with intelligent dashboards and tools.

• Replit integrates with Stripe for seamless app payments and subscription setups.

• Lovable introduces Themes, Design View and AI Image Generation. Themes let you set brand standards and reuse them across your projects.

• Anthropic unveils three API features for scalable agents: Tool Search, Programmatic Calling, and Use Examples.

• Anthropic’s Claude Code hits desktops, running parallel sessions for coding and research.

• Anthropic’s Claude Code integrates with Slack, turning tagged threads into web-coding sessions.

• Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.2 debuts with 4MP multi-reference image editing and open weights for creators.

• The United States launch their Genesis Mission, uniting supercomputers and AI to double U.S. research speed within a decade.

• Kimi Agentic Slides transforms files and infographics into editable presentations with design flair.

• Cocoon's decentralized network processes AI requests confidentially, letting GPU owners earn TON.

• Kling AI unveils Kling o1, a creative engine mastering text, image, and video for seamless creation. It’s Nano Banana for video’s.

• Kling AI unveils Video 2.6, blending sight and sound to enhance storytelling magic.

• InVideo launches VFX House, offering creators full VFX control built on Kling AI’s o1 inside InVideo.

• ViduAI's Q2 Image Model creates 4K images in 5 seconds, with unlimited generation for members.

• Manus Projects streamlines your workflow setup, eliminating repetitive tool configurations.

• Alibaba’s Quark AI browser integrates Qwen for a smarter search experience on desktops.

• Alibaba’s Quark AI Glasses debut with S1 and G1 models, featuring text Q&A, navigation, and lens payments.

• Mistral 3 revolutionizes AI with open-source multimodal models, featuring up to 675B parameters.

• Kinetix AI’s Kamo-1 Open Beta debuts AI video control with motion performance and real cinematography.

• BytePlus Seedream 4.5 enhances visual clarity and text rendering for creative professionals, now in beta via BytePlus ModelArk.

• Krea launches their Node App Builder. It transforms workflows into simple apps anyone can use.

• Krea launches Context for Nano Banana Pro adds depth to your generations with ease.

• Synclabs’ React-1 revolutionizes video editing for game developers, animators, and filmmakers by letting you modify only the region you want.

• Warp Agents 3.0 debuts with code review, terminal tools, and new integrations for Slack, Linear, and GitHub.

• n8n introduces 2.0 beta, with solid security and performance upgrades with a safer live workflow editing model.

• Essential AI unveils Rnj-1, a robust 8B open model, championing open-source AI advancement.

• Poetiq smashes ARC-AGI-2 records with 54% accuracy and halved costs.

This was it. Our forty-five digital dip together. It might seem like a lot, but remember; this wasn't even everything that happened in the past few weeks. This was just a fraction.

If you want turning AI into value, I can help. I work with leaders to map where they are, spot where they can go, and build what’s missing in between. No hype. Just the work. From custom GPTs to full-stack automation, I help companies move from experimenting to executing. Want to talk? Just reply to this mail.

Looking forward to what tomorrow brings! ▽

-Wesley